Limited access to clean drinking water and poor hygiene are being claimed to be the course of waterborne diseases which include Cholera, Typhoid, and Dysentery.
Health and Sanitation Coast region coordinator Jeremiah Kiwoi is now urging the government to invest much in preventing the diseases than curing them.
Kiwoi told The Star that Sh500 million is used to cure diseases that can be prevented in Mombasa.
"The county is using a lot of money to cure. That money could have been used to give people clean water, hygiene and sanitation, and health would have improved,” he said as quoted by The Star.
The sanitation coordinator noted that the waterborne diseases being recorded are because there are limited toilets, residents not washing hands after visiting toilets and even poor culture where some family cannot share toilets.
“For example, in Kwale, they believe that it is not good for one single toilet to be used by everyone in the family,” Kiwoi said.
Last month, as the world marked World Toilet Day on November 19, Mombasa residents marked the day by 'gifting' the County Clerk Salim Juma human faeces neatly wrapped in a gift box.
The residents said the rare 'gift' was to sound a warning to County Government of Mombasa that toilets were needed in the county.
Some residents, mostly from major slams, noted that they were being forced to use Indian Ocean shores as their toilets and even 'flying toilets'.
“I prefer answering the long call of nature on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Personally, I don’t use the flying toilets because I wouldn’t know who the poop will fall on,” said William Oduor, a resident.
World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that limited sanitation leads to about 432,000 diarrhoea deaths every year.